The Lies We Love

One of the biggest things I have learned about my country, and what so many seem to shrug off by saying, "that's just the way it is," is that what matters most - above health and human wellness, above happiness, above morality and care for out neighbors -- is profit.

The fogginess surrounding my thoughts of a country that has not only held up the enlightened ideals forged over two hundred years ago by men of heart and soul, but carried them forward into ever new and promising visions of "certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," is only growing more dark and dim.

What is the reason NASA has chosen not to release a study to the public about airline and air traffic safety (which shows twice as many bird-strikes and near mid-air collisions)? "A senior NASA official, associate administrator Thomas S. Luedtke, said revealing the findings could damage the public's confidence in airlines and affect airline profits." (Emphasis is mine).

In other words - people may demand something be done! In the meantime, they just might take the train. If something must be fixed, that's going to cost money. And if less people fly, that's less money the airlines (and corporations like Boeing) make. Our safety doesn't matter as much as profits, so NASA won't tell us the truth in order to protect bottom lines. Countries that put their citizens (the true holders of governmental power) first are great countries. At least it's something we used to be.




Remember, President Bush vetoed the S-chip bill that would have given health insurance to poor children. He said that $35 million was too much money to spend on something like this. Thankfully, today he came to his senses and asked Congress for $46 billion - with a B - for war. "To date, Congress has already provided more than $455 billion for the Iraq war, with stepped-up military operations running about $10 billion a month."

In saying why he vetoed S-chip, "Mr. Bush argue[d] that the expansion is too costly..."

Kudos to Rep. David Obey (D-OH), here.





We're all in really big trouble. Everything we use runs on oil: our cars; the machines that make our cars; the trucks and ships that get our cars and good to the stores; the machines that make the machines that make the ships and trucks; the combines and harvest our food, the plants that process our food - everything. Our entire life-support system is based on oil.




As if undermining out life support system wasn't enough; we're REALLY stabbing ourselves in the back with this: "...an alarming new study finds that warming signals are stronger, and happening sooner than expected, due to increased human emissions of carbon dioxide and an Earth less able to absorb them."





P.S. Glenn Beck is an idiot.

What about upgrades?

How's this for an upgrade? I'm always looking for ways to consolidate all the gadgets, appliances, and the like into one nice, neat package. This is nice, this is neat, and after a few hours my work will definitely be more creative!
Just one thing - will it automatically notify the beer company when I'm low and place an order?



One of my friends, who is in the Army, received a letter from one of her friends; a pilot over in Iraq. He talked about how great things were going, especially north of Baghdad. (He failed to mention the car bombs killing over 400 people). I have also talked with other people who are under the impression that things are really great and that the media just isn't reporting the good stuff. However, all of these people only point to broad generalizations about what "good" things are happening over there - without ever really naming anything. (Yes, some good things are happening - but not near enough to counteract the enormous amount of horrible disasters happening).

When you bring up the fact that women are prostituting themselves to buy food for their children, hardly any water or electrical supply, millions of refugees, and that the Iraqi people have said time and again that they would like us to leave, well...these things don't matter.

What matters is if we "cut and run" and don't "fight them there" then they are going to "fight us here." Leaving Karl Rove's pedantic talking points aside, lets look at a few things.

If we were doing the right thing ( like we did by going after Osama in Afghanistan ) then why does the rest of the world disagree? Is it because they get the full picture.? The media in their countries, before, during, and after the war, analyzed the WMD claim and found it severely lacking. Every major media outlet in this country argued for war in Iraq and believed everything the government said without question. How is that any different than State-run media?

(State-run media: when what the government says and does is taken as fact, truth, and the right way of doing things without question.)

Speaking of without question. When a public health expert went to Afghanistan to document reconstruction programs, he found many of them unfinished. When he tried to report this to the Pentagon, they didn't want to hear it. ""I was brought aside and they told me, don't tell that story," Warner said. "I said why not. And they said well, this is one of our success stories."" The whole story can be found here.

I grew up in a very pro-military family; my father was in Vietnam as well as one of my grandfathers, my other grandfather was in World War II. I went to military school for high school. But then something happened. I began to read reports (and articles and books) about how our government would make sailors line up on the deck of ships, spray them with chemicals, and then test them to see what happened. I read about Operation Northwoods, which is where members of our government wanted to get the American public to back a war with Cuba. How did they propose to do this? One of the ways was to blow up a ship. A Navy ship. Our own, manned Navy ship.

WTF??!!

And you want me to trust the government? You want me to believe that we went into Iraq and invaded a country that did nothing to us because they had WMDs? Wait, I'm sorry, it was for regime change. Wait, sorry again, it was really because of Iraq's violations of U.N. resolutions. Wait...read this and pick your own reason - just like Bush and Co. did.

For an on-the-ground report of the situation in Iraq - don't just take my word that things are bad. Take Buddhika Jayamaha, Wesley D. Smith, Jeremy Roebuck, Omar Mora, Edward Sandmeier, Yance T. Gray, and Jeremy A. Murphy's words here. They know better than I.




The President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, wrote in a book recently that he was told by the U.S. that if he did not cooperate with us after 9/11, we would bomb him back into the stone age.

We weren't kidding. We're liberating Iraqi's from the 21st century and ruining our military in the process.


Drugs are bad kids, mmmKay? Stay away from Drugs. Hugs not Drugs. War on Drugs. Drugs are bad kids, mmmKay?

But some drugs are good you say. They take my pain away. They sure do. But they also mask the symptoms - like Prozac. It doesn't end your depression - it puts it in a closet where it's not dealt with and where it festers and grows. What we need to be doing is actually treating the causes of our ailments - not masking them with a pill that makes a select few people disgustingly rich at our expense. (While outlawing and imprisoning people who use an all-natural plant that takes pain away, too).

Why don't we start by getting rid of all the chemicals in our food? Lessen our stress levels by giving us more vacation days, socialized health care, more and better access to top-notch day care for our children. Let's face it, Americans are fed-up and stressed out and the result is that we're losing it. Just like our national infrastructure, our bodies need continual maintenance, care, and up-keep to be happy and healthy human beings. I don't care what Bush says, health care is NOT an emergency room.

Give me health care where i can get preventative care, help me attain a life less stressful where I can exercise and play in the middle of the day and not be stuck in a building behind a desk for 8 1/2 hours. Give me security and the dream of a world better for our children - and I'll give you my vote. Hell, I'd even work for your campaign!

Till Death Do Us Part

"But I do think there are clouds of neofascism in the sky and they're not on the horizon; they're getting closer to being overhead." ..... "Just last week Barbara Boxer said to Ed Schultz on the Ed Schultz radio program that this is as close as this country has ever come to a dictatorship. Dictatorship was her word. A senator, Barbara Boxer."

If this doesn't get you, then a fond farewell do I bid to our country - and why do you hate America? Really...why?



Is there any other time that was more ripe for a 3rd (or 4th for 5th..) party?

I mean c'mon people...we just keep going back and forth here. If the Republicans don't do what we want, then we vote for the Democrats. But what happens when the Democrats don't represent us? What do we do? Just get angry and blog like me?

Worse than Nixon? Seriously...who is worse - those who concoct evil plans - or those who vote for them?

Two sides of the same coin, my friends. And the "please vote for me issues" of abortion and gay marriage are a joke. Smoke and mirrors.

Republicans and Democrats voted for: Iraq War, "surge" funding, the Military Commissions Act, the Patriot Act, the renewal of the Patriot Act, the recent FISA update with no debate, let alone public discussion....

Republicans and Democrats have taken impeachment off the table, vote themselves raises, get family health care and pensions for life, yet continue to deny us health care and give money (corporate welfare) to corporations who go bankrupt...

Where's the party that represents me? Where's the party who does something different than the above?

Of course, the argument could be made that with Democrats in power, the outcome of 9/11 would have been much different. And I agree. But need I remind you - Democrats voted for the Iraq War, "surge" funding, the Military Commissions Act, the Patriot Act, the renewal of the Patriot Act, and the recent FISA update with no debate.

Real people, Hillary. Right; real people just me like.

This is not democracy - this is a JOKE.

Why aren't candidates running for president - who are on the ballot when I vote - allowed to be at the "presidential" debates? Where are the candidates from the Green, Libertarian, Constitutional, or Natural Law, parties? Democracy my a$$.


"Presidential debates can change the course of elections, but George Farah, executive director of Open Debates has evidence showing that the debates' rules of order have been hijacked by the two main political parties. The result? Moderators can't ask follow-up questions, important issues are never raised, and credible third-party candidates are excluded from the proceedings altogether." NOW with Bill Moyers (2004).


Speaking of debates. This is not my idea, but why not do this for our candidates?
This is my idea: why don't we do this for Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, et al. I mean, like they keep telling us....why be scared if you have nothing to hide?


I've been thinking this all along.

The state of our health care: here.

On a very happy note...people like these with ideas like this are what makes me proud to be a human.